Living with fear in Rittenhouse Square

A series of sexual attacks has women taking precautions - and eyeing men with suspicion.

In Council, questions on rape cases _Some members want to know why many assaults were not investigated. Public hearings are likely.

Maureen Rainey, 37, studied the thin man who strode past her on 21st Street near Pine. "There he goes," she said Monday, as the man in the black leather jacket and jeans sauntered down the sidewalk past the office where she works as a legal secretary. "That's him, that's the Center City rapist."

Every day for the last few weeks, Rainey has believed - for at least a few seconds - that she has spotted the man responsible for raping three Center City women, sexually assaulting two, and killing one over the last 21/2 years. But each of the men she suspected has been different, she added. She has not called the police.

"Now that the [wanted] poster is all over, I see him all the time," Rainey said. "I saw him walking down the street yesterday, and I saw him earlier today. And now I see him again."

Life has changed for the women - particularly young women - who live in the Rittenhouse Square area. For some, virtually every thin white man is a suspect. Rittenhouse Square itself, once a great place for night fun, now feels forbidding. Women don't go out alone at night. They take cabs. Those who live in high-rise buildings feel more safe. Those who live in brownstones, sites of some of the assaults, feel less safe.

And tall, young white men say they feel the suspicion.

"I'll stand outside with my cigarette, and you can feel the tension of the women," said Rob Wasserman, 27, a commercial real estate agent who works in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. He said that many more women were staring at him now than in the past. Asked whether they might be just interested in him, Wasserman said, "I'm a good-looking guy. I can tell when someone is looking at me out of suspicion."

Many women have been visiting hardware stores for Mace, window bars and window pins, which prevent windows from opening.

"We didn't sell these things for the longest time, and then all of a sudden we were out of them," said Bill Gallagher, an employee of Rittenhouse Hardware, noting that the store recently received fresh supplies.

Lynn Steerman, a sales clerk at Born Yesterday, a children's toy and clothing store at 19th and Walnut Streets, has studied the poster of the rapist numerous times.

"I could name 10 guys who that picture looks like," Steerman said. "That poster could be a million and one people. It's unfortunate that they don't have more specifics on distinguishing features."

As she walks to her car at night after work, Steerman said, she finds herself wondering whether certain men are the rapist.

Sarah James, 20, who attends the Court Reporting Institute at 1845 Walnut St., said she believes she sometimes sees the rapist on her way home. "I look at people differently now," James said. "I see a lot of guys who match the description" on the poster.

James then gave some of the details on the poster: white male, early 20s, thin, dark hair. The poster also notes the man is clean-shaven, is 5 feet 10 to 6 feet tall, has a light build, and weighs about 155 pounds.

Sometimes, James said, she does a double-take at men who fit the poster's sketch and description. "Sometimes they look back, as though to say, 'What are you looking at me for?' " James said.

James has not been sure enough of her sightings to call police, she said. But police have been receiving more than a dozen calls a day from women who believe they have spotted the rapist, police spokeswoman Susan Slawson said.

Wendy Pace, 30, a buyer for the Urban Outfitters store at 18th and Walnut who lives in Northern Liberties, has stopped walking alone to the Broad Street subway station at night. "If it's after 7, I take a cab home," she said.

Crystal Arey, 21, who lives in a rowhouse a few blocks west of Broad Street, said she and her sister wonder whether their neighbor is the Center City rapist.

"When we first saw him, we didn't think anything of it," said Arey, an art student. "Then his picture was on the news, and we were sure he was the guy."

Arey's sister, Candace, said they didn't report the man to police because "we didn't want to go and accuse this man if it wasn't him."

"Then again," she added, "it could be him!"